A visitor

When we last left our heroes, they had just returned from Atlanta. Arriving back in sunny CA, Sweetie made contact with a former colleague, Dr. Drew, who was out west on the return leg of a trip.

Still exhausted from our trip, we launched right into host mode. We started with a nice stroll down the beach and poke around the intertidal zone. This was followed by a hike over to the lab. It was very hot that weekend - close to 90F, sunny and no breeze. It was a nice hike, but we got close to getting too much sun. The Things complained very little about the hike. Thing 1 spent most of the time lollygagging behind playing sword with fennel stalks. Dr. Drew and Sweetie caught up with each other, while I hung with Thing 2.

The next day was another beautiful, sunny, hot day. In the morning we took a boat out, and explored the coastline down to Empire Landing, then back up past Bird Rock, and all the way to Emerald Bay and back. Not too much wild life seen - a few sea lions, and maybe a dolphin or two. Bird Rock is covered with birds right now, pelicans and cormorants mostly, but also some gulls. It smells quite special. That afternoon we did a cookout on the beach with some friends. The kids splashed in the water for a while (it's around 57F right now). A good time was had by all.

Monday the kiddies went back to school, so we went snorkeling! There was an aborted first attempt - the water was too cold, so we all went back for hoods - but once properly suited up, it was a pretty good snorkel. Storms the previous week had ripped up lots of kelp, which was now decaying on the beach and casting off lots of particulates into the water, so visibility wasn't what it sometimes is, but Dr. Drew still got to see garibaldis, and kelp bass, a spiny lobster, a bat ray, black jacks, spot, blue-banded gobys, quite a few orange sea cucumbers, a nudibranch, and I was lucky enough to catch sight of a leopard shark. We also saw some very cool seaweeds, including kelp that wasn't washed up on the beach. That night we went to the restaurant for dinner; we practically had the place to ourselves.

Tuesday, Dr. Drew had to leave. Sweetie drove him across the island so he could see more of the interior and a little of Avalon. Coincidentally, I was in Avalon, too, that day. A former colleague from TIGR who now lives in Australia was in town and came out to Avalon for the day, so John and I drove over to see him.

Next exciting installment... Star Trek, island-style!